Housing and switch-operating means for lamp sockets



c. H. BISSELL. HOUSING AND SWITCH OPERATING MEANS FOR LAMP SOCKETS.

APPLICATION FILE'D MAY 3, I919.

1,408,855. v Patented Mar. 7,1922.

( JIHIL. E1,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CARL H. BISSELL, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GROUSE-HINDS COMPANY,

OF SYRAQUSE, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

HOUSING AND SWITCH-OPERATING IVIEANS FOR LAMP SOCKETS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL H. BISSELL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga and State'of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Housing and Switch-0perating Means for Lamp Sockets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to outlet boxes used for housing electrical appliances as lamp sockets, etc., having switches associated therewith, and has for its object a particularly simple, efficient and durable means associated with the box for readily engaging with the operating elements or keys of said appliances whereby said elements are operable from the outside of the boxes. The invention consists in the combinations and constructions hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In describing this invention, reference is bad to the accompanying drawings in which like characters designate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a face view of an outlet box or housing embodying my invention, a lamp socket being shown therein.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of parts seen in Fig. 1.

Figures 3 and 4; are detail perspective views of parts of the operating member carried by the box.

This invention'comprises an electrical outlet box, or housing, an electrical appliance mounted in the box and having a switch operating element associated therewith and operating means carried by the box and con-- structed to readily interlock with said element.

l designates the box which may be of any suitable form, size and construction, it being...

here shown as being open at one side and formed with means as an internally coarse threaded flange 2 for receiving a globe not shown. The box is also shown as formed with a hooded top and a portion 8 projecting laterally from the top and provided with suitable means as nipples 4c for connection with electrical conduits through which the service wires extend to and from the appliance in the box.

5 is the electrical appliance as a lamp socket provided with a laterally extending key 6 for operating the switch of the socket. The socket is placeable in the box through i Specification of Letters Patent. Patented E1313 '7, 1922 Application filed May 3, 1919. Serial No.=294,580. p i

the open side, and is secured in any suitable manner to the support 7 secured by screws 8 to posts 8 depending from the top.

The operating member carried by the box is here shown as rotatable and journaled in a lateral side wall of the box arranged at an angle to the open side and is formed with means for interlocking with the key 6.

9 is the operating member here shown as having a shank 1O journaled in a bushing 11 threaded in the side wall or the box and in a bushing 12 threading in the former bushing 11. The shank being arranged in axial alinenient with the key 6. The operating member 9 is also formed with a socket 13 at the inner end of the shank 10, said socket being open at its inner end and at one side so that it will receive the head of the key 6 as the socket is being mounted in the box. The socket 13 is here shown as U-shaped with the intermediate part of the U mounted on the shank 10. A spacer 14 is located on the shank 10 between the socket 18 and the bushing 11. A suitable handle 15 is mounted on the outer end 01 the shank and secured thereto as by a screw 16 and by interlocking slots and tongues 17, 18 on the hub 19 of the handle and on the outer end of the shank. The hub 19 of the handle abuts against the bushing 12 so that the spacer lid and hub hold the operating member ijroin axial movement. a

The support 7 for the socket and the posts 9 in the box are so arranged that the key of the socket will. come in substantial axial alinement with the operating member 9 on the box.

In operation, when the socket is being placed in the box, the key 6 is turned so that the head thereof stands with its long dimension parallel to the axis of the socket that is vertical in Fig. 2, and the operating member 9 is also turned so that the socket 13 likewise stands vertically. Hence, during movement of the lamp socket into the box the head of the key slides in the socket 13 through one of the open sides thereof and interlocks with the socket 13. After the lamp socket has been secured in position, the key can be operated by turning the handle 15 of the member 9.

This construction of box and switch operating member is particularly advantageous in that standard appliances or sockets can be readily placed in and removed from the box and the switch operating element as keys of said appliances can be readily engaged with and disengaged from the operating' member carried by the box.

What I clairnis; V

The combination of a box open at one side, an electrical-socket mounted in the box and placeable therein through the open side, the socket having a key extending laterally therefrom towarda lateral side of the box which lateralside is arranged at an angle to the open side, and an operating member mounted in said lateral side of the box,

means for securing the socket in the box with the key in alinenient with the operating member, the key and operating member being formed to interlocku-pon movement of the socket into the box, substantially as and for the purpose described. V

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name at Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga, and State of New York, this th day of April, 1919.

V CARL H. BISSELL. 

